I want a watercooling setup - need your advice

[gdawson6]

I wanted to setup my rig with watercooling, i wanted to watercool my amd xp and my geforce 4. I have seen cases such as koolance but figured i didnt need a new case when i have my full tower black antec.

What all would i need to set one up, and wheres the best place to get them? is there any sites with alot of info on setting up watercooling?

Thanks for your help.

 

[alfhead]

I'm in the exact same situation as you, I've also got a black antec tower case, and am looking to watercool my CPU and possibly my GPU (once i get that radeon 9700, hehe). I've been planning my setup based on the posted watercooling setups posted at www.hardforum.com, under the overclocking forum.

it seems that www.dangerden.com is a popular place to purchase waterblocks, pumps, and radiators. I'm almost about to just go with one of their complete setups, but I'm holding off to see if I'm gonna venture going out and finding a radiator and pump for cheaper on my own.

 

[whiteboyatcal]

I highly recommend DangerDen, I purchased a P4 waterblock from them and was very satisfied (prompt delivery, good ordering system, etc.). I built my own system (do a search for a post titled "Pics of my homemade watercooling setup). However, for a system designed to be totally inside a case, you can't beat the systems they sell at DangerDen and the like. The Eheim pump is the ONLY way to go for an in-case system so you may as well just buy a complete kit and save money. If you are building an external system you can get the cheaper Danner utility pump (Supreme Mag-Drive) from a pond supply store and the 350GPH model I have of this pump is a bit stronger than the eheim (10' of pump lift) but it is a bit louder (makes a low pitch hum). However, it is far too big to be used inside a case, and the bigger problem is that it generates quite a bit of electromagnetic interference so you don't wanna have a utility pump too close to your monitor or hardware or you might have issues. The same goes for the radiator. You can get a heatercore from an autoparts store, and it will flow better than any computer radiator on the market, BUT it's too big to put in a case. So in your situation, you can't beat a complete kit. Also, if you want to build your own system, keep in mind that the hardware adds up. At $2 per brass fitting and $1 per hose clamp, you can easily spend $60 at Home Depot just buying fittings...

 

[MrThompson]

I use and would highly recommend both Danger Den and Swiftech components. Both companies have excellent products and outstanding service.

Check out the Watercooling section at Overclockers for a wealth of setup information.

 

[Clinth]

I?ve been water cooling since I first overclocked a Celeron 300A. I have never bought a complete setup as I always found them to expensive. My current set up is a water block form danger den, a Rio 600 pump mounted in a gray electrical box, and a chevett heater core. It ends up 25% cheaper then a pre built setup and I would say the chevett core will out perform the black ice extreme or similar.

Clinth

 

[nongv]

what do you recommend for a p4? i was looking at the dangerden and i don't know what to pick for the setup like what kind of water block, maze3 and so forth.

 

[Clinth]

I like the looks of the maze 3 but don't see a big temp difference from my maze 1(email me if you want it cheap)

Clinth

 

[gdawson6]

Thanks for all the input! i will probably try to purchase a complete setup off of starfox in the fs/t section, seems like a pretty good deal,
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=45&threadid=856979

now i just need to sell my ps2 and 1800+ xp

 

[FenrisUlf]

Originally posted by: Clinth
I?ve been water cooling since I first overclocked a Celeron 300A. I have never bought a complete setup as I always found them to expensive. My current set up is a water block form danger den, a Rio 600 pump mounted in a gray electrical box, and a chevett heater core. It ends up 25% cheaper then a pre built setup and I would say the chevett core will out perform the black ice extreme or similar.

Clinth

Amen brother! Yours sound almost exactly like mine (and I got started watercooling on a 300A too!) I've got an old Maze 1, generic pond pump in the 4"x4"x4" electrical box and some unidentifiable Ford heater core. Fairly inexpensive and will be equal or better than any commercial system. I just talked to the guy at the auto parts store and he let me go into the back and pull heater cores out of boxes until I found one about 6"x6". It cost about $20 new, alot less than the $85 that some sites are charging for the exact same radiator. Plus you can pick a heater core size that will fit in your case. I'm using some silicone tubing from the auto parts store - it's more flexible, doesn't kink, and it comes in several colors. Only downside is that it is just slightly bigger than 3/8" vinyl and requires aggressive clamping.

 

[SniperXP]

I am using the Innovatek Set2 and it really put my temps 7C down compared to the Coolermaster HHC-L61 that I had. Easy to setup too. It has the VGA waterblock as well. If you are in the states, check with http://www.sharkacorp.com. That's where I bought mine.

 

[muddocktor]

One thing I know for a fact is that the heater core rads sold by dangerden and d-tek customs will fit in an Antec case. I have the D-tek rad/shroud combo, which is a heater core that's had 1/2" fittings brazed on already mounted in the lower front of my Antec SX1240 case with no problems placing it there. You shouldn't have any problems mounting a heater core in the 1200, 1000 or 800 series of Antec cases(or their Chieftec or Chenming equivelants) in that position.

 

[BeauJangles]

I would also recommend not buying an entire setup from DD. I have a rip-off Maze waterblock, a 3 pass radiator, a Rio 400 pump which I payed total $50 for.

 

[IcedCpu]

If your just looking for some cheap but efficient parts try www.casemods.com they have cheap blocks and other parts they just want to much for there pumps.

 

[dannybin1742]

check out the fs/ft forum here, there is somone selling everything you need for $170, saw it today, just do a search for watercool